I published
my third book this month. Twenty threre and a half thousand words.
In this case, the technique was something I call
"emergency mode". I use it to get things done which I
really don't want to do - like writing this new book. In emergency
mode, I content myself with small but guaranteed regular progress
toward some goal. In this case, thirty minutes or 200 words a day.
The trick is to find something so small that even
you can't be so idle as to not do it. Thirty minutes, right?
So I surrendered to it. It would be over soon enough, and sometimes
it was. "Sod it - that's my 200 words done for today".
But often I'd crack on a lot further becaue - "hey, this isn't
so bad". So either way, the bottom line commitment was always
met, and quite often, much more was accomplished.
That guaranteed movement is the key, and now the
book is done, and it's been selling, and it will continue to sell.
It's not rocket science, is it? There's no mystery.
It leverages who we really are, to get things done. And it works.
You can apply this technique in your own life.
Ask yourself what you want to get done but persistently never do.
Now ask what a really trifling contribnution to that goal might
be. Choose one so small that even YOU would pay it - on a regular
basis. DO NOT BE AMBITIOUS - BE VERY PESSIMISTIC - because this
one has to stick when you really REALLY don't want to do it.
Now do it like you said you would - or be branded
a scoundrel forever more! Pretty soon you'll be looking down at
the rest of us from the top of your own mountain.
OK my work here is done...
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